Getting Started with Illinois REDCap

Illinois REDCap accounts are available to anyone affiliated with data collection efforts at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Each project must have faculty or staff member who is responsible for the project, data, and the HIPAA-compliance and project access of study personnel. For a project to be eligible for Illinois REDCap, it must be related to University research, business, or operations.

Before you begin

Organizing your project team

Before accessing Illinois REDCap, you must have Illinois credentials for all intended users of Illinois REDCap. All students using Illinois REDCap must have a faculty or staff supervisor.

All project supervisors must agree to the terms of the Illinois REDCap Account User Agreement and Protecting High Risk Data, regardless of whether they need to access REDCap. Access requests submitted without PI agreement will not be processed until agreement has been confirmed.

Illinois credentials

All users who wish to access REDCap must first obtain a University of Illinois Identification Number (UIN), NetID, and illinois.edu email account. Steps for sponsoring faculty and staff to request Affiliate NetIDs are outlined in the Illinois Answers KnowledgeBase. 

REDCap Video Training

To ensure baseline familiarity with REDCap, all users who will be accessing Illinois REDCap are required to complete REDCap video training prior to working in Illinois REDCap. REDCap. Users are encouraged to view additional REDCap training videos as needed.

Required

Introductory Overviews (Required for all users who will be working in REDCap)

• Brief Overview of REDCap (5 min): What is REDCap and what can it do?
• Detailed Overview of REDCap (14 min): Basic functions and features in REDCap

Basic Features & Functionality (Required for all users who will be working in REDCap)

• Introduction to Project Development (4 min): Designing and modifying projects
• The Online Designer (5 min): Making changes to instruments (surveys, etc.)
• The Data Dictionary (10 min): The structure of your REDCap project
• Overview of Basic Data Entry (16 min): Good training tool for data entry staff
• Applications (5 min): Built in REDCap tools

Project Types (Required for PIs or designated Project Administrators who are accessing and working in Illinois REDCap)

• Overview of Project Types (3 min): Decisions that impact what type of project you will build
• Traditional Project (3 min): Used for basic data collection, including some longitudinal data
• Single Survey Project (5 min): One data collection instrument to be collected once  
• Longitudinal Project (3 min): Structured studies with multiple time points and clear end dates
• Longitudinal + Scheduling Project (3 min): Multiple visits and easy way to schedule participants
• Operations Project (2 min): Other types of projects, such as non-human research or registries

Optional

Special Topics

• REDCap Mobile App (2 min): Tablet or mobile device for offline data collection [Note: The REDCap Mobile App is not currently available to Illinois REDCap users]
• Project Field Types (4 min): Some of the most popular field types in REDCap projects
• The Calendar (7 min): Track upcoming milestones and events
• Data Access Groups for Multi-site Projects (7 min): Assign users to groups with specific permissions
• Data Resolution Workflow - Data Queries Module (5 min): Data query management
• Locking Records (2 min): Freezing data unless accessed by users with specific permissions
• Defining Longitudinal Events (5 min): Use an event grid to define data collection time points
• Designating Instruments for Events (3 min): Designate which instruments are completed at each time point
• Scheduling Module (7 min): Record-specific schedules based on a series of expected events
• Repeating Instruments and Events (33 min): Repeating measures within and across sessions